Welcome to Iowa Public Television! If you are seeing this message, you are using a browser that does not support web standards. This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device. Read more on our technical tips page.

Jan Jensen, Player

Photos

Jan Jensen: Player, Elk Horn-Kimballton High School, 1980s. Her grandma played 6 on 6. All-American at Drake University, Associate Head Coach for the University of Iowa women's’ basketball team.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: Please
introduce yourself and tell me where you graduated from and what year.

Jan Jensen: Okay, my name is Jan Jensen and I went to Elk Horn-Kimballton
High School and I
graduated in 1987.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: What is your
earliest memory of playing basketball?

Jan Jensen: Well, I think the earliest memory was when I was a toddler. I
think my grandmother gave me a doll but my brother got a ball and I remember
just wanting the ball and it's kind of funny to hear the stories. But just over
time I just always enjoyed basketball and it was such a major focal point in
our community. The Elk Horn-Kimballton community had several great championship
years within the conference and they had some moments where they got to go to
the state tournament as well. But organized basketball started for me in the
third grade.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: You bring up
your family and in reading the book and also hearing stories about you, you
were a part of a family dynasty that spanned 70 years. Tell me a little bit
about that and about your grandma.

Jan Jensen: Well, I think that's probably the coolest thing for me is that I
got to share that whole experience with my grandmother. I think the most unique
aspect is that her nickname was Lottie because she scored a lot of points. And
that was something I never knew until really after I had finished my
professional playing days. I came back and we stumbled upon her old scrapbook
and I noticed I was looking at different articles that I hadn't seen as I was
growing up.

And it had the headline was "Lottie Snares 18" which 18 wasn't as
many in this modern day but back then when the scores were 22 to 18 it was a
lot. But she played in the 1920's for Audubon High School
and Audubon and Kimballton are about 10 miles apart or so. And I remember when
we were playing and I was growing up she obviously had a vested interest and it
kind of skipped a generation. Her son was pretty athletic, her daughters were
athletic but at that time they didn't go out for sports, my mother was very
musically inclined but now my mom is the biggest sports nut there is. I mean,
she knows more about ESPN
Sports Center
than I think I do.

Jan Jensen: But going through that as I was having more success and our team
was winning it was fun to hear my grandmother's comparisons and she always
loved the competition and the winning but the hang up she had was we showed too
much skin with our uniforms because she wore the bloomers and then she thought
the game was much, much too physical. But that was six on six which is,
compared to five on five, it really wasn't physical at all.

But compared to 1920 to 1987 obviously there were a few changes. But I think
that was really neat that we shared and I was a Drake University graduate and
her trophy when they won the state championship they play that at the field
house at Drake and they went to the tournament by train, one year I believe
they went by horse and buggy. I can't remember that part exactly.

But when they won they got little silver cups and it was really tarnished so
I had seen that when I was growing up but as I got older and you start to get a
little bit more mature in your thinking and your roots become a lot more
important so I began to shine it off and then I saw Drake University which is
pretty cool because that's where I played my collegiate ball.

And by the time I got to college her health was failing, she still had a
real sharp mind but she came to a few games at Drake and so that was pretty
neat. Now, I didn't always by that time we had our moments where we had a
really great exchange of the memories.

But just to have her in the same building was pretty cool and now I have in
my home I have found tons of pictures from that 1920's era and the little, I
still have her uniform and I have a little like bookcase that is all kind of a
shrine, if you will, to her era and then the centerpiece is that little silver
cup that is now pretty shined which I probably need to shine it again over
those years but you can read it now, it says Drake University.

So, that was a pretty serendipitous kind of I was blessed and I got
recruited nationwide but I chose to stay in Iowa and went to Drake, a great academic
institution. Back when I was coming out Drake was, had finished in the elite 8,
now there's a lot more differentiation between conferences and programs. But
then to find out -- and that was after I signed that she had played her state
tournament there, that was pretty cool.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: You were
talking about how did it feel to have her in the book she talked about how she
got to see you play and you were a star. What did she think of that, of the
high scoring?

Jan Jensen: I think she was just as any relative would be, probably proud. I
was really blessed. I didn't have a lot of undue expectations, I didn't have I
did score a lot but I never felt like that was my sense of worth and she just,
it was just fun when we would discuss after the games.

I grew up in a Danish community and we had the Danish Inn which is right
down the hill from our high school in Elk Horn and we'd go there after the
games and eating is always very important to a farm family so we would eat and
just kind of discuss the game and the wins and I think it was mostly she
couldn't believe my little hook shot or she couldn't believe that I got fouled
so much or she just thought it was too physical.

But she never really had too much critique of how I played, just usually happy
that the team won. But it really as any protective parent or grandparent, I
remember most of the conversations just because I did score a lot, I got double
and triple teamed a lot. And sometimes you get hammered a little bit and I
remember those were most of the comments maybe I wasn't hammered quite as much
as she thought but nonetheless she was pretty protective.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: Describe your
years in high school, what did you like about playing?

Jan Jensen: My high school experience, I've been so blessed. God has blessed
me so much. It was just fun. You read about this day and age of kids getting
into the wrong thing and they have so many pressures and the world was just
changed a lot in those 20 years. But it was just fun and lighthearted and we
didn't really know because we were a small class 1A program, we didn't have the
pressure of going five on five. That wasn't an issue, we weren't going five on
five until they had to take us kicking and screaming basically.

But as kids we didn't really know that and it was probably administrators
and I had a great coach, Rod Hoig was his name and they were probably doing
some battles behind the scenes keeping the six on six game. But it was I was in
an era I think you work really hard, yes, but I think there is just a lot of
timing issues. I happened to come along and I had a high score, I had great
teammates, most of my friends I made in college and now when you talk back in
the day they can't believe I had friends because I scored so many points, you know.

But it just worked that was the strategy and back then how how are we going
to win, we're going to try to get the ball to this scorer and I was one of the
scorers. And it worked and it was just really fun it's fun because you win, we
won big, we had great crowd support we drew better than the boys it's like the
girls game always started at 6:30 so the fans would come filing in and several
of our district games were people got shut out in the tournament play, they
couldn't get in to see the games.

I mean, I'll even go now, I'll
recruit in southwest Iowa and I'll have people
coming up that are 75, 80 years old now and they come over and they're just
saying I remember when you played in Harlan,
Iowa and just hear the story. And
so it was just a really wholesome environment, it was the whole community
backed us, classmates male and female were so into girls basketball.

I just really feel fortunate, I had just really a Pollyanna experience and
it's probably kind of like a fine wine, it does get better with age, the more
you think back on it there were some tough losses and so forth but it doesn't
sting quite so badly at all. Did back in 1986 a little bit but now you only
remember the good.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: You were
talking about your community and I think for so many years especially rural
areas ... what do you think it meant for rural communities?

Jan Jensen: I think it was really huge because people are hard workers in
the state of Iowa collectively whether you're
in Des Moines or Cedar Rapids, our two largest cities, or
you're in the rural community. But a lot of the rural was farmers sun up to sun
down, blue collar just work ethic. And a source of that entertainment when
they'd spend their two bucks to get into a game what better way to spend that
than to watch your daughters and sons for other sports too but just because
we're talking six on six and six on six was so unique I think it really did
become a centerpiece of pride not only if you didn't have a daughter playing
but basically in smaller communities you know everybody.

And you had some special connection to Jan Jensen or Cami Christensen our
best guard and my best friend to this day from growing up. you just have, it
was a family, it was a family event even if you weren't related and there was
just something special and I think the older the game got as it grew everybody
got to be much more protective because then it was unique and it was unique to
the rural towns because the big cities they were all, they were going over to
the dark side they were switching and everybody was trying to hold fast to the
traditions.

And when you take it out of the basketball setting I think life in rural Americana is based on
tradition. Stereotypically change isn't always real welcome we're going to do
it this way and we're going to do it this way every year and you get around a
holiday and it's going to be this Danish custom and so forth and I think it's
not that unusual to think that people had a hard time thinking that we were
going to change this great game because why would we change it?

My grandmother played it and my mother played it and great-aunt Bertha
played it and everybody had such a great experience and it was such a great
experience because everyone was involved in the small community. There was just
a sense of it was our team, they were our girls and I think that goes with
Wayne Cooley establishing the Iowa
girl.

And it was a thing of pride to be one, it was a thing of pride to cheer for
one and I just think the rural communities really embraced it because it was
wholesome and it was a family affair and it was unique and sometimes in the
rural communities there's not always a lot of people that are thinking anything
is really that unique about the smaller communities. And when you have
something special I think they really wanted to hang onto it.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: You're
talking about Wayne Cooley. Tell me about E. Wayne Cooley. What do you think
his role in all of this?

Jan Jensen: I think he was hugely instrumental. I think anybody that knows
anything about the state of Iowa
and basketball and the recent history. I mean, you just credit Wayne Cooley for
really establishing it and making it the institution that it was and he was a
great business mind and he also -- but he had a passion he was running an
organization and anybody that is running an organization you need to have
revenue and the bottom line is to have a profit.

But he didn't want to do that at the expense of making anything seem cheap
or fake or just getting people in just for the basketball. he would make it an
event, he made it entertainment and so it was a lot of pride obviously for the
young women who got to play but when the pep bands got to come and the dance
squads and all the parade of champions he just kept thinking and figuring out
ways to try and make this a showcase for as many young people as possible.

And I just think he did a fabulous job and he really succeeded in marketing
it. He succeeded in really instilling a sense of sentimental value with being a
wholesome Iowa girl and now sometimes you don't want to be called girls, it's
sexist and so forth, but in that timeframe, in that era when it was in a payday
we weren't as politically correct in concerning ourselves with girl means
you're not as good as a boy and so forth, it was simply a trademark and the
girls who played it were proud of it and they aspired to be the very best Iowa
girl that they could be.

And Wayne I
think made so many high school girls' dreams come true and you didn't always
have to be state champion you didn't, the great thing was to become part of
that sweet sixteen but as with anything and maybe it's because I'm in coaching
now but it's always the journey. if you ever figure that out, I mean, yeah, you
want to cut down the net but if you get it figured out that it's the journey
and every step along the way that's when you really get to fully embrace
everything.

And I think that's what was fun about being an Iowa girl is that everybody
wanted to go to Vets, everybody wanted to go to the Barn and that's when the
little trek started when you've got to start practicing October, November and
you were part of that process. And then if your dream came true and you ever
got to go to state that was just the pinnacle.

So, I think that he should have a great deal of pride in everything that he
established and I know he does. But I often when I talk to some young women and
different organizations I'm asked to talk with is to make sure that you always
remember the people who went before and I think that we'll always in this state
owe a great deal to Wayne Cooley.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: You're
talking about the tournament ... what was the state tournament? What kind of experience
was that for you?

Jan Jensen: Oh, it was just big time you've made it, everything -- I'm
getting a little older now so a lot of the memories get a little cloudy but not
that one, I mean, I remember our pep rally before we took off, I remember the bus
ride and the whole procession, the police officer will follow you out of town
and just the whole ordeal. And what's interesting that was 1987.

When I was reading my grandmother's newspaper articles, I mean, they came
home to a heroes welcome and they had the same thing. They were state champions
but, I mean, it was the big deal and the town they had a way of communicating
and they'd get it off the wire when Audubon girls had won just they kind of
detailed how that happened and then they met them five miles outside of town
and they came in with this big parade and how cool is that.

That was 1920 and this is 1987 and we were having the very same type of send
off. Unfortunately we didn't become the state champions but just being in the
tournament I think everybody had a sense of just the satisfaction and you just
felt special because everything they did when you got to the state tournament
was very special from the tournament breakfast to the procession and the rules
of how to get into Vets and the rules or the protocol for the pre-game warm-ups
and halftime and it just was big time and you knew that you were experiencing
something, even when you're young and sometimes you don't you don't know really
what you should be feeling when you're 15, 16 years old, the state tournament
you got it.

Now, you didn't know that you were going to remember it quite as well when
you're 38 as when you were 17 but you got it and I think that's probably the
best mark I think anybody that I'm sure you talk to that has competed in the
state tournament, you knew that you were experiencing a pretty dog gone special
memory and you couldn't really maybe articulate it but you just knew that being
there, being one of those teams was something that you were never ever going to
forget.

Yeah, really, when they set it up like that and they delivered, really, you
felt like that.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: Talk about
some of the myths. I know when I played and now things change ...

Jan Jensen: I mean, I think first it's laughter. I mean, even when I played
at Drake because when I was recruited at Drake there was a lot of kids from Michigan and Chicago
and different big cities or other states that had no clue and they just
couldn't get it. They were like you are kidding me. And I think the biggest
thing was they couldn't believe that anybody would want to play defense for a
whole game because the sport no matter how much we like to say that defense is
as important which we all know it is especially then when I coach.

The media always wants to write about the kid who scores 100 or the one that
is averaging 30 points a game in college or whatever. But that was always the
biggest thing is that they just can't believe that there would be someone that
would really be excited about being a guard the whole time. So, you kind of
have to explain that I'm sure you experienced that when you went to a little
camp back in the day they'd ask who wants to be forwards and we'll all raise
our hand or who wants to be guards, there would be equal number that would want
to do that.

And so I think that was maybe not a myth but that's been one of the biggest
things I always encountered to have to really say no really, the bad kids
weren't just pushed to the other side. It was just what you got excited about
because of how the game was really created.

I think the myth was a lot of a lot of people just didn't think that girls
from Iowa
could really play. How could you play if you've only really played half the
game and thought we were weaker, thought that we weren't as versatile and so
forth and the thing that was probably true -- I played a lot of AAU summer
league ball which was five on five and then I got recruited that helped me a
lot, so I probably had a little bit of a better start in college than some
girls that got recruited that didn't play that.

But there was an adjustment period. I mean, it was a lot more physical, I
laugh when my grandmother thought it was physical and I got to five on five in
the Division I level then I knew what physical was. But I think that was the
biggest thing is there was some truth in it but it didn't mean that we were
physically weaker, we just weren't used to it.

But what we did have on them is if you were a shooter or a forward is our
shot was so much better because that's where we spent most of our time. We
weren't always doing the defensive slides or the defensive drills, we were down
there really honing our shooting and especially if you had a knack which I
think I was just really blessed with that is I was a little bit better in
college than shooting because that's where I spent my whole life basically.

So, those are the things I think but you just had to, like anything the
myths and that you just had to put up or shut up and if you were competitive
which that game we were competitive, we succeeded and I think a lot of the
girls that went on to play Division 1 I was really blessed to have a great
college career and a pro career. But I think the ones who really succeeded you
just worked your tail off and maybe the deficiency that the game of six on six
didn't allow us to have but the things that, the benefits that we got from it
were far outweighed any negatives.

The forwards they get a lot more of the glamour but it was the guards that
won the championships. No question.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: You were just
talking about going on to play at Drake and how obviously you played AAU but
you were the leading scorer in the nation among Division I players at one time.
How do you think playing the six on six game actually influenced that,
influenced your success at five on five?

Jan Jensen: That's a great point, I think being so prolific at scoring in
high school I spent so much time on that skill and when I went to college I
had, especially my senior year, Lisa Bluter who is now the coach at Iowa, she
coached me at Drake before we came over to Iowa here and she just really, maybe
it was the fact that she was an Iowa girl too, she grew up in the states but
she just really knew how to utilize a scorer and the game of six on six Deb
Coate, Lynn Lorenzen, Denise Long, you have great scorers that probably spent
countless hours like I did playing outside, shot in the barn for a while, always
shot outside in the winter.

We had little vinyl gloves you'd cut the tips off, that was just as
important as it was to us, that we were so much more ahead of the game because
we spent so much time on that. And it was such a great source of pride and it
was fun for us that when we got to college yeah we had to catch up a little bit
maybe on the overall game the defense and just understand how that all worked,
not just the defensive mechanics but the fact you were running up and down and
so forth but I just think if you had a knack to score and you couldn't get to
average that many points as we all did, some of the scorers if you didn't
practice long and hard at it. But were just were a little step ahead.

And I think people didn't realize that. It took people a while to come in on
the national level to come in and recruit Iowa and I think it was helpful
because I averaged 66 points a game in high school but I played some national
tournaments where I was getting recruiting letters but they were probably
thinking can this kid just score.

But then when I would go out and I played and I had a really good sophomore
summer that's when I got some letters from Stanford and Tennessee, they could
see that okay, there are some kids in that state that really can make that
transition. But Iowa was such -- I love Iowa, I'm so proud to be from Iowa that
I wasn't going to leave the state of Iowa because it had been so good and I
think a lot of that was due to Wayne Cooley establishing such a pride of being
an Iowa player as a high school athlete that the Iowa schools were always near
the top of my list, even when I was hearing from Ivy leagues and hearing from the
West Coast or the East Coast.

Family was important and we had some great schools in our state that I
didn't really feel like I wanted to just leave all that behind to go out of
state to play. But I do think that it was helpful that when I went and played
in the summers and I had some other great players that were six on sixers we
were basically six on six kids and we won the state AAU tournament.

And then we went out and these six on six kids were beating some of the
nation's best. If we weren't beating we were definitely competing which I think
really helps in that 85, 86 era, opened some national recruiting eyes.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: You bring up
a good point -- the rest of the nation was really looking at Iowa. A lot of the larger cities in Iowa they never even
played ... how does it make you feel? You're still a part of women's athletics
-- to know that Iowa
led the nation?

Jan Jensen: Yeah, I think there is a sense of pride in that and I think a
big reason as to why I've always chose to stay in athletics, I had such great
role models and great mentors and I was able to really follow a lot of great
pioneers. And I think I had a great upbringing and I have a real strong faith
and had a good sense of it was the right timing and I was really blessed.

And so I think part of what I hope I'm doing is just passing along the
baton, is just taking everything that, all the good that I received and
hopefully I can be considered when I'm older and like my grandmother was, when
I get to my twilight days that people will look back and say yeah she played
way back in the 80's but she was still making a difference.

And I think that Iowa was making a difference when I played and it was the
people a little older than me, the Denise Long, Deb Coates, those people in
that era, they just kept making it a little bit better and a little bit better
and we're still not where we need to be in the national division 1 level. Iowa was special. I
mean, it was kind of weird for me when I went to Drake and there was kind of
gender equity issues.

I was like, what? Why do the guys get to fly to games? In high school that
would never happen. we were treated equally, we happened to be better attended.
And now in this day and age we've made great strides. Title 9 really helped us
and I was a benefactor of that. But just on a division 1 level when you talk
about salaries between men and women, you talk about practice times and so
forth across the nation it's such a discrepancy.

I think it's harder for women from Iowa
who grew up in pretty great supportive high school settings to realize, wow, we
still have a long way to go. And I think that is part of the challenge and
that's just not within athletics sometimes, that can cross over into other
professions where there is sometimes a little disparity where you wonder why.

But I do think that Iowa has always been a
forward leader in that aspect and it's probably one of the reasons why I feel
so comfortable and confident staying in Iowa
because we do have great support. We have great legislation. Our athletic
directors, our university presidents and all of our universities and colleges
here for the most part really get that.

And so I think that there is, there's always more work to be done and I
think the minute you get complacent you're really doing an injustice to all
those that have enjoyed the sport before and have worked hard to position it as
it is today. So, I'm proud to continue serving in that role as a coach in the
state right now and hopefully, like I said, I can continue to do that however
my life unfolds but to be a nice positive advocate for competing in sports.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: In Jan's book
you were talking about the significance of six on six basketball for you
personally and for the state -- what do you think six on six meant to you?

Jan Jensen: I think that, I just think the game of six on six, I don't know,
maybe it wasn't just, I can't maybe credit just that it was six on six but I
think just the values that are instilled when you are a competitor and you're
on a team and everything you learned through winning and losing and sometimes I
really think we learn more from losing because it really reveals your
disappointment and your character but how do you bounce back from that. And all
those life lessons, I think those are things that really tremendously shaped me
along with my parents and all that they instilled in me.

And then I think the six on six perspective was the fact that you felt
special you just knew you were special because I was kind of coming through
when the controversy, like when are they going to change for good when are they
going to change. And you knew that you were probably, you could just feel it
because sometimes all good things must end and you could kind of feel like the
end was probably going to be near.

And I think that component mixed in with knowing that you're going to lose
sometimes, that sometimes you're not always going to cut down every net,
sometimes you're going to have to get along with someone that just stole your
boyfriend or whatever. You have to work with people. I think those are just
opportunities, and that even now we instill with our college women that I coach
here at Iowa… is dealing with all the ups and the downs. But within all that,
making sure that you are holding strong to your value system and who are you
when no one is looking.

And I think just as a young kid all those things were so important to me as
I played the great game of six on six but then it was just even more special
because I was kind of the last of the Mohicans if you will on that era of big
time scorers with a big time community following and making that trek to Vets
Auditorium.

So, I think it was really emotional and then you add you get to share with
your grandmother who is aging and in her twilight years it really was and I
think that God really blessed me, I've always had a pretty mature spirit or an
outlook that I could grasp it. I got it as a senior, maybe not as much as I get
it now, but as a teenager could, as much as I could absorb and as much as I
could take in I really think I got it. I
think that my parents would be a witness to that and my coaches and my
teammates.

I think they would know that I really, I was really most of the time filled
with just the spirit of humility. Because, I just felt I was part of something
really special, and never took it for granted. And it was just an unbelievably
growing process that just yielded so many wonderful life lessons and so many
great, great memories.

So, I really think being a competitive athlete really did shape me. And I
was one of the lucky ones that had a stellar career that led me to a full ride
at Drake. That led me to a pro career in Germany. Things that women didn't
get to do… and certainly not a kid from southwest Iowa who lived on a farm in a class of 26. So,
I just really feel tremendously blessed and I do think a major reason of it was
because I played the game of basketball.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: Obviously you
have a love for five on five -- what would you like the girls that you're
coaching today to know about the game of six on six and about the athletes who
played it?

Jan Jensen: That's a great question. It was funny because when it was
switching over six on six, I probably had to be a little bit more politically
correct because I was recruiting kids from the bigger schools, the Cedar Rapids
schools and so forth right alongside the six on six kids. So, a lot of times
I'd get asked when the national media blitz was happening should the state go
six on six, is it ready for a change.

I was always a little bit in the middle, very truthful I said well my heart
wants it to stay six on six. But knowing now, as a college recruiter, when I'm
going out and the game just keeps getting more physical and better and bigger
and faster and stronger. Collectively I did feel that girls that played in Iowa would perhaps get
more of a look.

Because my friends who would coach California,
a school in California, a school in Arkansas were not coming to Iowa because they just thought we didn't
have time to develop that defensive side. Just in those kind of conversations,
knowing full well it kind of benefited us because I was like good, stay out of
our state.

At Drake we really had a lot of success. We would typically sign the best
six on six players, they would end up at Drake. And I think part of that was we
really had a commitment to recruiting the Iowa girl. And we still do at Iowa. Our goal every
year is to recruit the best player in the state of Iowa. And we always will and I think that is
because Lisa Bluter, myself and Jenny Fitzgerald were all Iowans and Jenny
Fitzgerald was a great Iowa
athlete as well, she played at North Scott and she played more five on five
than I did. But we're proud of our heritage and proud of all of that.

So, when it was kind of switching over it was a little tenuous sometimes but
I do think that it was a great sendoff, I think the timing was probably right
and it probably needed to be done because if you hold on too long sometimes
you've kind of got to leave them wanting more and I think that's what six on
six did is when it ended it kind of left everybody yearning and longing for a
little more but then that's what even takes it into another level. Then it just
becomes like it's even bigger than life because it was unique.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: Tell me about
the night that you were inducted to the Hall of Fame? How did that feel?

Jan Jensen: It was dreamlike. It was awesome because my grandmother could be
there. She was in the home at that time, but she we got she was in a
wheelchair, but they had handicap seating right next to the court, and that was
probably the pinnacle moment, because my mother is a piano teacher and we lived
in the country but she would do all of her lessons at my grandmother's home,
and on the piano, but on like where you could, like when you're practicing
piano in my grandmother's home, she had her Hall of Fame Trophy, and I remember
practicing the piano and I'd looked up at the trophy when I was really little,
a third grader, and I told my mom I was going to get one of those someday.

And over the years my mom would help remind me of that, but I kind of
remember that moment, and as kid you're not egotistical in that, you just wanted
to have a trophy like your grandmother whom I love dearly, and it was really
kind of surreal when it all kind of came full circle, and it was just a great
moment because Vet's was sold out and I had a lot of my friends and family
there, and just to kind of have your life kind of summed up. I think back when
I was little making plays to go to the state tournament and with my dear friend
Kami who was a great guard. It was it was a moment. It probably ranks up there
in all the wonderful things that I've been blessed with, that was definitely
one of the top.

Laurel Bower Burgmaier: The five on
five --- it was kind of unique with some of the other players that we're going
to be interviewing you are still in, in the game coaching. since it was passing
game, there was high scoring, you had such great fundamentals, what kind of
things do you do with what you learn in that game that continues in your
coaching?

Jan Jensen: Well, I think the great thing really six on six was a game of
three on three. Making it simple, breaking it down to the teams that won
usually had the best strategies. With three on three. And we sometimes, I think,
in the game of basketball you can really get, really involved with all these
elaborate strategies and schemes and trying to set 17 picks, and have someone
roll off. And if you make it simple and use a couple screen and rolls and have
a nice passer and have a prolific scorer, you can be pretty doll gone
successful.

And so, my experience when I played it was always a game. It was a very fun
game and there were very fun moments, and there were intensities because you
wanted to win. But I think sometimes in this game of athletics, this day in age
of athletics, and there's so many big contracts and lots of pressures to be the
Big Ten Champs, and in football, men's basketball, women's basketball, everybody
wants to be a champion. There's so much pressure now.

If you're not careful you can put that pressure into your kid and you forget
that they're kids. Kids are playing a game and I think why I had such a great
coach in high school and great support. And fun -- it was always a game. And it
was pretty simple, what we were going to do, and it was pretty fun. And even a
couple of my greatest memories of playing in high school were a couple of losses.

They were great games and I just happened to miss the shot that didn't win
it. And that would have been great too. And so everything that I do as a coach
now, and the intense level of five on five, at one of the premier institutions
in the country, is to always keep it pretty simple. And we have some complex
things don't get me wrong, but really just keeping the love in it. I think that
holds true. I mean, anything we do, the happiest people are the ones that love
what they do, and I love what I do getting to work with young women.

I think that young women are more successful when they love the game, and
it's not a pressure cooker of, “I've got to get this, we got to win, we got to
do this and I got to make this cut.” Just have a really great positive
experience and have a love for it. That's what I learned in six on six, and
that's what I hope I instill today.

City of Literature How did the midwestern college town of Iowa City, Iowa become the capital of creative writing in America? It’s an unlikely story of literary ambition, academic innovation, and a promising young poet who became a cultural entrepreneur.

The Farm Crisis The Farm Crisis examines the economic and personal disasters that afflicted the agriculture sector in the 1980s.

Iowa's Firefighting Family The trust and cooperation that is required to risk one’s life to help others makes the 20,000 firefighters in the state of Iowa one giant family. This special bond is illustrated with the Butler family of Harlan, Iowa.

Lost In History: Alexander Clark Despite an historic court victory for civil rights and a lifetime of other significant achievements, Alexander Clark's story has been all but lost from history.

Iowa Soldiers Remember Afghanistan After record deployments during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, Iowa National Guard troops reflect on their experiences and tally the emotional toll.

Templeton Rye: Iowa's Good Stuff This locally-produced documentary takes a glimpse at the whiskey cookers of Carroll county and their spirit to hold a community together.

Searching for Buxton A young African-American goes searching for his family past in a long-disappeared Iowa coal mining town and discovers that much of the prosperity and goodwill his relatives enjoyed nearly a century ago is elusive today. Narrated by Simon Estes.

Iowa State Fair Iowa Public Television celebrates over 40 years of in-depth coverage of the Iowa State Fair. Browse IPTV's collection of hundreds of fair video features from current and past years.

TV Iowans Grew Up On From the 1950s to 1980s, local television stations to produced their own programs to accompany children's cartoon shows. This documentary is a nostalgic look back at several local children's programs and the impact they had on young Iowans.

Iowa's Radio Homemakers: Up a Country Lane In this heartwarming documentary, Evelyn Birkby, famed radio homemaker, shares her knowledge about Shenandoah, Iowa’s radio homemakers and offers personal and engaging stories about rural life in the 1950s.

Iowa's Simple Pleasures Hosted by Dan Kaercher, Iowa's Simple Pleasures is a new series produced by Iowa Public Television that highlights fun things for Iowans to do, see, and taste, right here at home.

Picture Perfect: Iowa in the 1940s Photographs show the faces, fields and porches of small-town America before World War II and stand as a historical record of both a bygone time and a rural Iowa that's fading away.

From the first farmers to pioneer settlers; new immigrants to Iowa innovators, discover how the experiences of the past tell the story of who we are as Iowans. Produced in partnership with the State Historical Society of Iowa, IPTV's Iowa Pathways brings together vast resources into an online destination examining the people, places, events and ideas of Iowa.

Support Iowa Public Television

Iowa Public Television provides quality, alternative programming of lasting value to Iowans regardless of where they live or what they can afford, without commercial interruption. You're visiting this Web site because you believe in the power of public television - and because you enjoy local documentaries like this one. We hope you'll consider joining Friends of Iowa Public Television as a way to say "thank you" for programs like this.